Scaling the Science of Reading with the TRI-Reading App: A conversation with Mary Bratsch-Hines and Heather Aiken

December 13, 2023 | By Kerry Friedman

Mary Bratsch-Hines and Heather Aiken, leaders of the evidence-based product Targeted Reading Instruction (TRI), recently sat down with host of The SRI Homeroom podcast Kori Hamilton Biagas. Bratsch-Hines and Aiken discussed how to make the science of reading actionable for teachers and how they are adapting TRI to accelerate recovery and scale. Bratsch-Hines explains,

In addition to students really needing that foundational support for learning how to read, we also understand how important it is for teachers to really understand how to provide that foundational reading support – that focus on fluency and comprehension and decoding. A lot of that is now termed as science of reading, and it’s difficult to understand how to incorporate science of reading into teaching.

The TRI program, which includes both professional development for teachers and an embedded student intervention, has decades of evidence supporting its impact on student outcomes. TRI incorporates evidence-based reading strategies and has undergone rigorous testing to demonstrate positive outcomes for students. Now, the TRI team is leveraging the LEARN Network to adapt the evidence-based program to better respond to pandemic recovery needs and plan for scale. Part of this adaptation is moving TRI to the Reading App, a digital platform developed by Lastinger Center for Learning. The resulting product promises to simplify implementation for teachers and broaden the base of who can use the TRI-Reading App.

Listen to the full episode of the SRI Homeroom podcast here: https://srieducationnews.org/the-sri-homeroom/

Tags: Application Evidence-based Literacy Research & Developers